


"Truth or Truth?"

by Assumare



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Canon Related, M/M, Meteorstuck, Past Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-13
Updated: 2015-10-13
Packaged: 2018-04-26 07:06:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4994905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Assumare/pseuds/Assumare
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dave and Karkat kill time on the meteor together and play a human party game to learn about each other's lives before the game and prepare for what may come after.</p>
<p>
  <em> The meteor was not a place you could spend time alone. At least, not out in the open.</em>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	"Truth or Truth?"

The meteor was not a place you could spend time alone. At least, not out in the open. 

In your respiteblock you were safe, or at least you felt more safe. It was probably the presence of walls closer together, and actually being able to see, and how most occupied blocks either didn’t have a vent or it was bolted tight, covered, and barricaded. They were warmer, too, so you guess that helped.

The meteor had a sort of eerie chill about it that never quite went away, even when there were a lot more of you. Perhaps it was because so much of it was unexplored and dark and seemed to go on forever, or because it made strange noises by itself, or because of all the deaths that had taken place, or because of the murderer still in hiding, waiting. You don’t think it’s the last one, even though that contributes, because you remember it being just as eerie before the slaughtering. 

You don’t really want to think about that, especially right now when you’re wandering said eerie halls alone.

You quicken your step and shake away the honk you imagine hearing in the distance.

Because the meteor was not a place you could spend time alone, time was spent (or wasted, if you’re being honest with yourself) with others in the common rooms, which were the library, the kitchen and food stocks, the “living room” (you still can’t quite grasp it’s purpose, but it seemed to be popular in human hives), can town, and a few other rooms that contained furniture and not quite such a dreary atmosphere as the rest of the meteor (but only if you weren’t alone). The only time one was alone and out in the open was when they were traveling to their block or to be with another person, or because they had ended up alone accidentally by falling asleep (who in their right mind would do such an asinine thing) or because they simply were not paying attention (once again, completely asinine). 

You happened to be alone at the moment only because you were making your way to Dave’s block.

Dave Strider, prick extraordinaire and expert in all things utterly flabbergastingly annoying.

The prick who also happened to end up as your best friend due to a long extraneous tale that ended in you rather embarrassingly crying about your award-winning ability to fuck things up and him actually treating you like a troll being. 

You two ended up spending time together once you both managed to screw up any other relationships you had and realized you had no one else to spend (waste) time with. You two ended up bonding when you realized just how much in common you both had. 

Now you’re a little inseparable, and it’s difficult to imagine the sort of rage that once coursed through your veins at the mere thought of him. It’s surprising that you ended up in a red quadrant rather than a black.

Uh, pale. You mean pale.

Of course, Dave doesn’t necessarily realize that he’s your moirail, probably because you haven’t brought up the idea to him, but you’re not going to force it on him. If he finds out you think he’s in one of your quadrants he may flip out as he’s prone to do, and since he’s already doing everything expected of that quadrant, it’s not necessary.

What Dave doesn’t know isn’t going to hurt him. For now.

You’re almost certain Kanaya would tell you that if you asked her about it.

...But just to be safe, you’re not going to in the near future.

You get to Dave’s respiteblock and knock, because you’re not such a huge inconsiderate asshole that you just barge in, unlike _some_ people. You glance around, somewhat nervously as the hall gives you chills, and urge Dave to answer faster. It takes him a moment, but he finally opens the door, completely nonchalantly, with headphones around his neck and a simple nod that asks you, “Sup?” Almost as if he hadn’t just been messaging you to come over, almost as if he’d just gotten lost in his music and was trying to play it cool by not opening the door right away, but you know better by now than to believe that hoofbeast shit. You tolerate him anyway and simply roll your eyes before brushing past him and entering his block.

“Yeah, sure, make yourself at home. Mi casa es su casa.” 

“Whatever, Dave, do you have something for us to do or not?”

He shrugs, capturing perfectly the image of not giving a fuck, and irritating the shit out of you in the process, but you’re not pissed off yet. “Eh, you know. Not really, just wanted to chill. You’re the one that wanted to hang out so bad, dude.”

You snort but decide not to call him out on his lies. You figured this would happen anyways, since by now you and Strider have reached the point where most of the time you “hanging out” involves less of doing stuff together and learning about each other, and more of just mutually enjoying the other’s company while doing other stuff.

You flop onto his sleeping platform and decaptchalogue a book, which is a bit worn and falling apart by now but you figure you can still get a few more reads out of it before it meets its disjointed end. 

Strider fiddles with his laptop some more before flopping down next to you on the platform, and decaptualoging a handheld game of some sort.

You spend a fair chunk of time in mostly silence, but in a comfortable one.

This is a good way to pass time, which is why you probably do it so often. It’s much better than sleeping, Rose and Kanaya can be hard to talk to when they’re being red-rom-y, and basically everyone else is avoiding you. All the solo activities you could do have been done several times over already, and now you and Dave just have each other’s company to suspend the loneliness, and eerie vibes, which hang over all of you.

Dave sighs and closes his device, and props himself up against the wall instead of slouching over like he was. He peers over your shoulder, despite his inability to read Alternian. 

“Yo, what’re you reading?” 

You roll your eyes when he finally gives in to curiosity and asks. 

“An Alternian romantic-tragedy. It’s really good, I just started.” By now, you’ve finished the book you came in with and have opened another.

“What’s it say?”

This is his “clever” way of asking you to read to him. You can’t imagine he actually believes he’s still being stealthy at this point, but then again, he still keeps saying that instead of directly asking.

“You should really learn Alternian, you know. We don’t know what the end game is going to look like, we could end up with some sort of mixed english-alternian language and then all you humans would be screwed and wondering how you could have been such dumbasses that you wasted a sweep and a half on a rock floating through space and didn’t even bother to at least learn to read it.” 

“Yeah dude, I know that, and Rose and I have worked on it a little, but it’s hard, okay? Alternian doesn’t translate to English as easily as you make it seem. Just read what it says, okay dude? I might even learn something, who’da thunk?”

You growl low and playful at him, but comply, tracing the words on the paper for him to hopefully follow along and actually learn something, like he suggested.

It’s clear he’s not interested from the beginning, but the two of you have reached far beyond the point where it would bother you, and so you keep reading, if only to provide a small amount of entertainment for yourself.

It’s easier not to dwell on things you shouldn’t when you’re focused on something. 

Dave’s mind is even more obviously elsewhere for after a good period of time has passed, mostly without interruption, he flops down onto your lap and tosses your book somewhere unknown, possibly into his sylladex.

“Strider, what the bulge-chafing fuck?! I was just getting to the good part, you immature, utterly impatient dickface!”

His head turns up from its place on your lap and he flips his sunglasses up onto his head. You hold back your surprise, since this isn’t common, but it isn’t uncommon, either.

“Man, you think every part is the good part. I’m bored, dude. The boredest of boreds. I’m so bored that if I were told to walk the plank right now, I’d _be_ the motherfucking plank, and the rest of the sorry losers would have to walk right over me to feed the poor, starving sharks, who are all so damn disappointed at not getting a taste of this Striderly goodness that they’d just let their sorry asses swim away. Damn shame, too. Karkat, if you’re going to keep rolling your eyes like that, I’m pretty sure they’re just going to pop out of your head one day, and how the hell am I supposed to explain that to Rose or Kanaya?”

You stop doing exactly what he called you out on, and cut him off as he opens his mouth to spew more bullshit. 

“You’re the one that asked me to come over and ‘chill,’ so by all means, you should be entertaining me! Instead, I’ve been sitting here listening to your incessant rambling and prodded to dance around for you like some kind of trained mammal-beast!”

Dave laughs at that, and says something about how he would definitely count that as entertainment, before you elbow him in the gut.

“If you’re so keen on being entertained, what should we do? That _doesn’t_ involved me being one of your human juggalos.” You cut him off again, tempted to elbow him again when he opens his mouth to suggest it. 

“A game, maybe? Not a video game or anything, but something like truth-or-dare, maybe? Not literally truth-or-dare, of course, but one of those type of games?”

You frown, your eyebrows furrowing. “Truth-or-dare? What kind of a game is that?”

Dave sits up and turns to look at you. “Really? Don’t you guys have party games?”

You roll your eyes again, despite his previous warning. “Fuck no we don’t have ‘party games,’ unless you count ‘let’s see who can torture the catering staff for the longest without killing them,’ in which case, of course we have ‘party games.’ Dave, the only trolls who had ‘parties’ on Alternia were high bloods who were rubbing their shame globes together in hopes of flattering the upper classes enough to get somewhere after they got off-planet, and adults who were already somewhere but still flattering the upper classes in hopes of taking over a spare planet or two, or getting themselves out of trouble with the empire, or better, getting in good with the empire. You know, that kind of bullshit. Rose mentioned something similar on Earth?” 

“Well, yeah, sorta. But I mean, there’s parties, and then there’s _parties_ , okay. Those things by the elite, those are more of what you’re thinking of, and they just sit around in fancy clothes and sip champagne and look at art or something. But _parties_ , man, everyone has those. People get drunk, there’s lots of sex, loud music, and, five guesses ladies and gentlemen, yes, you in the back, party games, you got it. Truth or Dare is one of the standard games, besides the college favorites of beer pong and ‘Spin the Bottle.’ Truth or Dare is basically what the name suggests, when it gets to be your turn you gotta chose truth or dare, and then the person that challenged you tells you to do something based on your answer. If you chose truth, they’ll ask you something that you gotta answer no matter what, and if you chose dare, then they’ll tell you something you have to do, no matter what. If you don’t answer the truth question or do the dare, then, like, something happens like the universe collapses in on itself. Point is, you gotta do it, no matter what.”

You blink at him for a moment. “...That sounds particularly stupid, even by human standards.”

“Well yeah, that’s why you do it when you’re drunk. And I said a game _like_ it, not actually Truth or Dare.”

“Why are you so into group activities so suddenly? Usually when I come over you’re mostly, ‘let’s ignore Karkat and show him ‘rad jams’ and rap at him until he gets fed up enough to leave.’ I can’t possibly be giving you that much entertainment to do much else.”

It’s Dave’s turn to roll his eyes this time.

“Nah dude, it’s just that we’re bros and shit now, but we don’t actually know a lot about each other. You know?”

You pause and regard him for a moment. He seems to be serious, which is unlike him... He probably is just that bored, but he’s been thinking about this for a while.

Does not really knowing him and what his life was like before the game bother you? 

You guess it does a little, but at the same time, you feel like you know enough about him that you don’t really have a reason to think about it too much. But you are curious, now that he’s mentioned it, and there’s not much to do on this rock anyways, and Dave started it already, so...

“Yeah, I guess I know what you mean. What kind of game then were you thinking? Truth or Dare sounds interesting, I guess, but I don’t think I trust anything you might dare me to do.”

“Well, I wasn’t actually suggesting Truth or Dare, but I guess we could just do a sort of Truth or Truth? Not very exciting, but I’m the only one suggesting ideas at the moment, so.”

You squint at him, trying to see if he’s attempting to fool you into some weird human custom or other, but he still seems honest.

“Yeah, okay. Whatever. How are we doing this then?”

Dave shrugs noncommittally. “I suppose we’ll take turns asking questions and keep in mind that we’ll be answering them after the other person.”

“Sounds good. You first?”

Dave nods and readjusts himself so he’s lying down again, sprawled out on and over the bed. He ponders, and you begin to wonder if he’s ever going to think of a question, when finally he think of one he’s all right with answering himself.

“Let’s just go to the basics then. Childhood?”

“What about it? That’s not a proper question, Dave.”

“What was your crab-thing like? Your parent-lusus.”

“Ah.” You swallow thickly. Not exactly the most favorable subject, but. “I don’t know. We had a normal lusus-troll relationship. He chattered at me, I fed him roe cubes, he protected me and taught me how to hunt properly... If it wasn’t for him though, there’s no way I would have survived, or even gotten a lusus, really. He chose me.”

You swallow hard. This is perhaps going to be a bit more emotional than you thought.

“You?” 

“Well, you know Bro, at least a little bit.”

“Not really. I only really followed John’s timeline. I only caught glimpses of yours. All I know is what happened in the game.”

You’re not going to let him get out of his own question, the prick.

He sighs, realizing he’s been caught. “Yeah, okay. Well, he. Bro was... really determined to make me be as best as I could, I guess. I’ve sorta figured out by now that he probably was... actually kind of a shitty guardian. Of course, as a kid, I thought he was the best, but like, the dude fed me doritos and take-out on a regular basis, and used the refrigerator for swords instead of food. He raised me on all this heroic bullshit and just-” Dave is worked up now, breathing hard and fisting the snuggle planes of his sleeping platform. “I feel like he ruined me sometimes? Like I’m just now sorting out all the bullshit he did that really fucked me up and I just denied it for so long... I just feel like because of him I will never get to be normal and I don’t care if he thought he was prepping me for the game or whatever, it’s bullshit and no kid should ever have to go through that and, and fuck him, seriously just _fuck him_ for making me go through all this now and trying to fix myself when he’s the one who raised me broken without me even fuckin’ noticing until now, just, _fuck_.”

You’re not that surprised. You suspected Dave’s issues with his guardian-lusus due to the hushed conversations between him and Rose and the way he’d address his “Bro,” but seeing Dave open up about how fucked up he was is something still unfamiliar to you. He clearly doesn’t want to dwell on it, not now, but you’re already feeling your relationship rising its echeladder. Shit, you mean platonic relationship. As in, your pale relationship. _Fuck_.

You put a hand on his shoulder and don’t say anything. Not only are you not sure what else to do or say, but you think this is what Dave’s comfortable receiving right now. The silence that surrounds you as he breathes deeply (and the pressure he gives your hand as he leans into it) tells you this was the right decision. (However, you can’t quite calm the swirling your food sac does.) 

The moment passes back into what it was before and you drop your hand from its place at his shoulder, but the warmth doesn’t leave your hand.

“Come on dude, you next.” He nudges you, inhaling shakily. “And lay down or something, I feel like you’re towering over me and that shit just ain’t right, seeing as I’m usually the one doing the towering.”

You nudge him back with a little more force and lie down like he is on the platform and give it some thought. Finally, “What did you want to be as an adult when you grew up?”

Dave makes an agreeable noise, letting you know he thought it was a good question.

“I didn’t have like a set goal, but I knew that I wanted to do something arty, not anything science related. I used to collect dead things, I don’t know if you knew that, and they were hella sick, but I wasn’t interested in anything science-y or history related besides paleontology, really. I thought about becoming some sort of musician, like a rapper or dj maybe, or more realistically, like a producer? Or maybe I wanted to work on my comics, even though that’s really just a hobby. Or film, I thought about making films because I thought they were cool, or photography. I dunno, I had a lot of interests. Not really sure if I’m still into any of that shit though, now with the game and all.”

You hum more understandingly. You get that a lot better. Less cultural difference - a lusus hurting their charge continuously, rather than helping them grow, was unthinkable. _Abuse_ didn’t make trolls tougher or help them adapt.

“You?”

“...I wanted to be a threshecutioner. Like, serve for the empress? It’s fucked up, honestly.” You huff, trying to gather your thoughts and tugging on your hair a bit in frustration with your past self. “I just thought that if I was good enough then I wouldn’t... then everything would’ve been fine somehow. Like they wouldn’t care about my blood color or maybe I’d never get found out or something. It was stupid though, I knew that I wouldn’t ever get there. I just didn’t know _this_ would be the reason.”

The back-and-forth lapses more into an honest, open conversation, which you prefer. You talk about your lives pre-game, your planets, your friends. You share about hiding your mutation from everyone, even your friends, and he talks about his brother and the realization that it wasn’t just a fucked up game he was forced to play, but an abusive lifestyle.

It’s late in the evening and that’s all you know. Dave and you are sitting against the wall, although “slouching” for Dave would be more accurate, since he’s putting his back against you and his side against the wall. You’re not tired enough to sleep, and neither is he, but that’s not surprising. Time of day means little on the meteor, anyhow.

“Top regrets that you probably can’t fulfil before the final battle?”

“That’s a tough one. Probably making up with Terezi properly, hashing shit out, you know,” You hum in agreement, “not spending enough time with Rose, never telling my Bro what an ass he truly was, not being able to spend time with Jade and John properly... I miss those fuckers,” You don’t respond - you do too, but he has a deeper connection to them than you do, you think. Your bloodpusher aches, and you silently tell it to stop doing that. “Typical things like not getting to see fireworks again, never going on a date, never having sex-”

“You’ve never had sex?” 

“Oh yeah dude, I’ve had tons of sex. Can’t you see I’m swimming in pussy?” He sits up and faces you properly, eyes rolling. You can’t help squeeze your bloodpusher does when he meets your eyes. “Come on dude, like you have?” 

...Point.

“Have you ever kissed anyone?” You would’ve assumed Terezi, but you also sort of assumed they had gone as far as sex. 

“Dude, I believe it’s my turn.” He pokes you in the side and you jump, frowning.  
“Fine, whatever.” You grumble, your face feeling a bit warm.

“So, have you kissed anyone?”

You scoff, side-eyeing him to watch his reaction. He’s close, and you can’t help your face growing warmer.

“Uh, n-no, you asshole. You’re just trying to piss me off.”

“Uh huh.”

You glance at him and he’s smiling. It makes you embarrassed for some reason, but it’s not like he’s making fun of you.

You’re huddled so near to each other, subconsciously drawn together.

Or perhaps not so subconsciously.

“What about you?” You mutter. He can probably feel the heat of your breath on his face. You hope it doesn’t smell gross.

“Mm?” He seems distracted... Distracted by your nearness, like you are, or...

You gulp, your mouth feeling dry, as you stare at his lips, too.

“Have you ever kissed anyone, Dave?” It comes out softer than you wanted it too, and you mildly feel even more embarrassed and the desire to turn away grips you but you hold still, waiting.

“No.” His breath ghosts across your lips too, and they tingle.

He licks his lips. 

“Would you like to?” 

“God, yes.” You whisper, then unceremoniously tackle him, lips smashing together. 

Your teeth clash and at first you think you should pull away but his arms wrap around to hold you back and it grows pleasant.

Hot, even.

“Oh, god,” You gasp as his arms tighten and one hand makes its way under your sweater.

“Yes?” He smirks and makes a sound that curls your toes when you pull on his hair.

He makes some more of those sounds when you nip his neck and put your hand on his hip underneath his shirt. His skin is hot, as hot as yours, and it’s both foreign and familiar. 

You make a pleased sound when he draws you back up to his mouth and the sloppy makeouts get a little sloppier. You both just can’t get enough of all this skin...

He nips your ear, which provokes about the same reaction he was probably hoping, and then kisses your cheek and back on your mouth, hard but chastely, one, two, three times.

Your bloodpusher leaps and you can’t help your eyelashes fluttering against him.

“Karkat...mmm, Karkat, dude,” he pulls you into the most sexually charged hug you’ve ever been in while you both breathe hard. “Karkat, we should stop. If we keep going I don’t think we’ll be able to stop.” 

You still, trying to make sense of the thoughts stirring around in your thinkpan like mixed liquids swirling around in a fishbowl.

You wonder why you need to stop at all, but you slow down and nod, agreeing with him. 

Still, you grip each other, sitting and breathing hard in the other’s shoulder for quite some time.

You don’t remember the last time you’ve felt so safe.

(Or turned on, for that matter, but you’re trying to forget that.)

He lets go first and you both pull back, a bit awkward now that you’re not...making out.

Dave is red in the face and on his ears though, which makes you want to smirk in the satisfaction that you’re not the only one.

“So... That was pretty hot.”

Your face feels like it’s on fire and you feel like swooping in to finish what you started but no, better not do that.

His hand is awkwardly scratching the back of his neck in what you know to be a nervous tick and he coughs under his breath.

“Spit it out, Dave. Don’t make this awkward.” You roll your eyes, still flushing. Uh, flushing in the face. As in burning in embarrassment.

“Awkwardness is a two-way street, buddy. But uh...” 

Shit, you knew it. He’s going to say something probably awful.

Shit, what if he doesn’t want this to happen again? What if he wants you to forget it?

Your bloodpusher is now skipping, pumping harder in your chest than it has in a long time.

“It’s probably pretty obvious by now that I really like you...”

Fuck. Is this really happening?

Your breath is caught in your throat.

“So I was wondering if you wanted to maybe try the romance thing with me? We could go on actual dates and stuff. We can talk about quadrants or whatever later, but could you at least-”

“Yes, Dave, I will totally try the romance thing with you, you have totally stolen my bloodpusher and made me swoon in the swaggiest of ways, ‘bro.’” 

You smile anyway.

He lets out the air he was holding and quickly pecks your lips with his. When he leans back, he’s red-faced again.

You feel like you could run miles as you smile snarkily at him.

You also feel like you could fall asleep sitting up like this.

You yawn obnoxiously loud, your jaw popping.

“Tired?”

“I don’t need sleep, you know that.”

He chuckles quietly and moves so he’s under the sheets of his sleeping platform. You think that’s a sign for you to leave, but he flops the other half of the sheets open, inviting you.

“Want to sleep here?”

“W-with you?!” You splutter, momentarily going to the dirtiest possible meaning because you’re a gross teenager who now has another gross teenager at least somewhat interested in you. 

“Yeah, you know. To sleep.” He pauses and then waggles his eyebrows at you. “Unless you want something else.”

You shove him on the shoulder - he’s going to be intolerable now, you know it. Still, you can’t seem to wipe the smile off your face completely.

“Uh, I’m not going to sleep in these pants.” Dave raises an eyebrow at you and you smack his shoulder again. “Shut up! You know what I mean, douchewad!” 

“Dude, you’re wearing boxers, right? Just take them off. I won’t do anything... That you don’t want me to do.” He flashes a grin at you and then backtracks, sputtering a little. “I mean, take your pants off. Uh, I mean-”

You laugh at him, glad that you’re not the only one who’s awful at this. Seeing him screw up when he’s trying to be smooth is even better.

“Dave, it’s fine.” 

You, blushing, take your pants off and slip under the sheets with Dave. 

“Happy?” You mumble, mostly to yourself as you flip off the lights, but Dave hears and wraps his arms around them. You hum, pleased, even though he probably doesn’t hear it over himself.

“Yes, very.” He also tangles his feet with yours. 

You stare into each other’s eyes as much as you can in the dark, an indescribable, wordless agreement coming between you.

You plant a quick kiss on his cheek before snuggling in closer and wrapping your own arms around him, sighing contentedly. 

There’s a lot of unsure, scary shit ahead of you but at least you have this.

“Good night, Dave.”

“Good night, Karkat. Sleep well.”

You nudge your head up into his a little.

“You too.”

**Author's Note:**

> Obviously when Karkat says that an abusive lusus is unthinkable the concept is truly inconceivable to him although it still happens. He just doesn't really know about Vriska's relationship with her lusus and Karkat doesn't really grasp the severity of Gamzee's relationship with his lusus either.


End file.
